Here is a list of all the great and wonderful things Mr. Toews accomplished as Justice Minister:
He mused about the possibility of throwing kids as young as 10 in jail as part of amendments to the Young Offenders Act. It didn't happen, but it helped to shape perceptions of the Conservatives' approach to justice;
He introduced a "three strikes" bill that said anyone convicted of three sexual or violent crimes would automatically be categorized as dangerous offenders unless they could convince a judge otherwise;
He announced he would arm Canadian border guards;
He abandoned the Liberals' plan to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana;
He introduced public hearings to confirm Supreme Court judges;
He put police representatives on provincial judicial advisory committees, a move called an attempt to stack the bench with right-wing judges; and
He abolished the Law Commission of Canada, which funded research and recommendations for changes to federal laws.
Some of these measures proved to be popular with the "kids these days are no damn good lock'em up and throw away the key" set. The rest of us were unimpressed. I was especially unimpressed with his attacks on potheads. He abandoned decriminilization efforts. If he abandoned decrim in favour of legalization I would be happy. But Toews is in favour of cracking down on grow-ops, seemingly oblivious to the fact that attacking the supply of pot is not doing potheads any favours. Getting rid of Toews was a good idea considering we are probably going to have another election. Ugh, the thought of another federal election is making me queezy.
Decriminilization is a shitty idea. It just gives the cops the power to hand out fines for consuming cannabis. It does nothing to address the black market and will actually make life easier for street dealers. Decrim will not allow people to grow their own weed or have access to a cheap and safe supply. It perpetuates reefer madness by giving people the misguided idea that smoking weed is dangerous and needs to be punished. It's either full legalization or nothing. Decrim is pure shit and is a nice, easy middle road that will please nobody and let politicians pat each other on the ass and feel like they are accomplishing something. When in reality, they are using reefer madness to further their own ends. Only a garden tool would read the Senate Report and come to the conclusion that decrim will solve any of the problems caused by the War on Drugs.
Do you know what will happen if decrim passes? The street dealers will go nuts, the price of weed will go down and everybody will say "But what about the children?" Weed will be back on the shit list and will be banned again. Then any time a pissed off pothead says "Legalize Regulate Medicate Educate" some uppity jackass will say "But we already tried that and the mental institutions were packed full of junkie potheads" The giant wall of stupid will overwhelm me and I will decide blogging is a total waste of time and I will start a pothead lesbian coven and worship seagulls. That will make hell of a lot more sense than trying to explain to people why decrim is bad and legalization is good.
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